Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Today is Halloween. And this Halloween we have more to be frightened of than on any Halloween in past memory.

We are one week away for a possible take-over of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate by the Democrat Party. If that doesn’t frighten you… then your senses have been “seared” beyond reconstruction.

The “Ghosties and Goblins of the Left” have been celebrating for weeks now over a victory they have get to realize.

As for the Repubs, the Conservative cavalry has yet to ride over the hill to the GOP’s rescue. The big question is whether, or not, the GOP can even hear the bugle in the distance.

The Republican Conservatives are more than just a little angry. They are MAD! They have been saying, for months, that they intend to sit out this election and throw it to the Democrats just to punish the GOP! There is absolutely no doubt, among Republicans, that should the Conservatives stay home, they will lose.

The Democrats don’t care how they win, whether on their own merits, or because the better team throws the match… they just want power back. They have no plans, no answers, nothing to offer… but the promise to use their regained power to punish those of the opposition and show our nation’s collective backside to the enemy on the battlefield.

Their socialist agenda will be the single most important matter the government will deal with during their tenure.

As a Conservative, myself, I can see, already, that some conservatives have had a vision of the US under Democrat control and they have recoiled in disgust. They will not sit out this election. Many things will drive them to the polls, not the least, of which, is their religious faith.

In the meantime, I don’t think it really matters if the actions of conservatives become a near miss, or a loss, for the Republican Party. Throwing a scare into the GOP and then riding to the rescue, at the last minute, will, in the long run, get us no better seats at the Republican table.

At this moment, in our nation’s history, Republican Conservatives and Democrat Conservatives have nowhere to go, no political party to turn to. So, we’re stuck… until we can find a viable “point man” to lead a conservative movement to establish a viable third party, the Conservative Party of the US.

The Reagan Revolution may be dead, and there may well be a splitting of the coalition, which marched under Reagan’s leadership. That was bound to happen, in any event. Reagan is gone… and there is none like him. This then, could be the election, which pushes the Republican Party back to pre-Reagan days. Remember those days of doom and gloom with visions of the ever-setting sun of America…until that grand old man burst onto the scene with hope and optimism.

Leadership is the key to everything. Without it there is no direction, there is no strength. Our current President marches under the flag of the GOP. But Mr. Bush is not the leader of the Republican Party. As of this moment, we have no leader. And therein, dear voter, lies the rub.

We must have a leader before 2008. McCain will not, cannot, be that leader. Gingrich? Possibly. But Gingrich has moderated his conservative stance on many things and that worries a lot of us. We’d much prefer to have the “bomb-thrower of the House of Representatives” back. It’s that fire in the belly conservatism we long for.

(Note to the GOP: Never, never, never, ever again, present to us a “Compassionate Conservative” as a candidate for President!)

So, today we pay heed to the “scariest story ever told”! We conservatives have one week to decide whether to stay away, our support, the GOP, even with all our anger. Our allegiance is, first and foremost, to our country, not a political party.

This last week, before a political Armageddon, is our last chance to decide whether we want to treat our country so badly, as we know the Democrat Party will treat it, or to stay the course with the Republican party… until we can get ourselves organized into a viable third party.

We have a lot to think about, and a lot to consider, before next Tuesday.

Monday, October 30, 2006

It’s going down to the wire and the pundits, and MSM, tell us it could go either way. The tidal wave, the Democrats have been riding, has begun to break up as it strikes the Republican fortifications on the beaches.

I often visit “offshore” news sources to get a better look at what is happening, or not happening, as the case may be, in this country. I found this interesting article at “The Times Online”. Its entitled: “Democrats fear the storm could leave them high and dry” by Tom Baldwin.

Another worry for the American electorate is the fact that this may be the most contested election in history. It may be weeks, or even months before the outcome of some Senate and House races are known.

The manner in which elections are handled in the US is left, almost entirely, up to the 50 states. As a result there is a hodge podge, a mish-mash, of balloting procedures. Some states use paper ballots, while others use electronic voting machines. Others use a combination, while others use the old punch card method. All have room for errors and with an election as close as the “experts’ say this one is, you can believe that each side sill be looking for even the slightest inconsistency in order to cry foul.

The slugfest continues, as the deadline grows closer. With only a week left, to make or break a campaign, the fight resembles, for all the world, a couple of roosters fighting. One’s scared… and the other is glad of it!

From time to time, like most conservatives, I am accused of listening, too much, to Rush Limbaugh.

I admit, I am guilty of listening to Rush. But, I can tell you with no hesitation, whatsoever; that I do not draw my conclusions from info Rush supplies me from his daily radio show. Far from it.

Having been in the business, and having done a daily broadcast of conservative commentaries, I can tell you that it doesn’t work that way, at all.

When I was active in broadcasting, before retirement, my commentaries were based on conservative core belief and core principles. My program was popular among conservatives…but... not because I was providing “direction” for them. It was just the other way ‘round.

I listened to fellow conservatives and I read conservative columnists and watched, and listened, and read Left Wing media. I sat cross the table, at the local restaurants, with a cross secgion of the comminity as we had our morning coffee and discussed the problems of the world, the country, the state, and the county and city. Each morning, there was a free flowing discussion of thought and opinion. In other words, I simply spoke the words, in my commentaries, which my listeners were already thinking. I know that, because I had already heard it FROM THEM! I put into words their feelings and opinions. I did not try to lead them anywhere they had not already been.

And that is the secret of Rush’s success and it is also the secret to the failure of Liberal talk radio.

Rush validates what his audience is already feeling and believing. Rush’s program is unlike Liberal talk radio, which insistently tries to get out ahead of its audience and persuade them to follow their lead.

As an old advertising man, I learned, early on, that when you are perceived as trying to convince someone that your idea is better than theirs, and that you are better informed on the product than they, and they should follow your direction and buy said product, you will fail. The secret to successful advertising is to “let it be the listener’s idea”… always!

There you have it. And this is exactly why the liberal agenda is always at the edge of the abyss. Liberal candidates for office do not speak to you, they lecture you, they talk down to you. They come across as stiff necked, and rigid, and convinced of their superiority of intellect, over yours, and they, and they alone, are your salvation.

There is something in the human animal that resents the living daylights out of that approach... to anything, including politics. It is one of the underlying reasons Northeastern candidates do so poorly in the South. In the South you are free to suggest most anything you want. But, the instant you begin “telling”, or ‘commanding”, or “demanding”, we bristle, and we get our backs up. We do not like being ”talked down to”. We find it offensive… extremely offensive.

In Rush’s case, he simply has his finger on the pulse of his audience. The fact that he is a fellow believer helps his cause, too.

I don’t expect this to come as any surprise to fellow conservatives. They know this already. But our friends, on the Left, cannot seem to come to grips with the fact that conservatives are independent, even from the political party, to which, they happen to belong! (If you don't believe it... just consider the problems the GOP has right now with angry conservatives!) We don’t, as I have been accused of often, drink anyone’s Kool-Aid. Anyone who does… is not a conservative.

Up to now, I have said nothing about the high price of gasoline as the result of the high price of crude oil. At least, I haven’t said anything, thus far, in this so-called crisis.

The reason? I’m not worried about it. For those of you who will declare that “ole Longstreet” is off his rocker, let me tell you something about America which will, I think, explain why I’m not worried about the world running out of oil.

I came of age in a “Can Do” America. Mine was an America, which could do anything it set its mind to do. Even the horizon, itself, presented no limits as we proved when we put men on the moon and brought them back home safely.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the US military was at one of its lowest ebbs. America has always reduced it’s military after a war and we have always been blind-sided when attacked and had to build a mighty military machine almost from scratch. Even the Japanese admiral who led the forces making the raid on Pearl said he could own the Pacific for about six months, and then America would come after him. He had gotten his education here, in America and he understood that once that sleeping giant was awakened, somebody would pay. In August of 1945, Japan paid.

Nobody considered that America might lose that war, either against the Japanese or the Germans. America doesn’t lose wars. Our leaders quit on us, as those did in Vietnam (and left our servicemen in shame over a war in which they had won every battle, but the leaders in Washington would not let them win the war).

Every problem this country has faced we have triumphed over. It just never occurred to us we could fail. Rarely did we have a plan “B” because we had so much confidence in ourselves that a plan “B” wasn’t needed!

Americans aren’t quitters although our leaders frequently are. Like the bunch we have in Congress now. But that is for another post.

As a youngster growing up the quickest way to get an old fashioned “whupping” was to say: “I can’t.” Those words were not uttered without punishment meted out to the person who spoke them. “Quitting” and “can’t” were two words not in our lexicon.

I distinctly remember my third grade teacher handing out paddling to any student who said: “I can’t”. That was good old corporal punishment with a wooden paddle, which would make your rear end sore for a couple of days. We referred to it as “The Board of Education!”

So, my generation was reared in an age when there were no horizons for America. There was nothing America could not do. And I still believe that!

Now… this leads me to the Gasoline Problem. I happen to believe that we are nowhere near using up the last crude in the planet. However, that makes no difference, as many people DO believe it. The problem I have, you see, is that the America I grew up in, would be working night and day to find a fuel to replace the petroleum based fuels we are using today.

It bothers me to see government officials wringing their hands, as though near panic, over this little problem with crude oil. If they REALLY believed what they are telling us, they’d be trying to do something about it… and I don’t mean telling everyone to get a bicycle!

Did you know that during the Second World War, when allied troops cut off Germany’s supply of oil, that she liquefied coal and kept on truckin? Did you know Germany had city buses running on wood as fuel?

As a member of the “Can Do” Generation, you see, I KNOW that some one, somewhere, in America, in some obscure laboratory, most likely on a college campus, will, in fact, develop a fuel to replace the petroleum based fuels we are told we are running out of today. Just in the knick of time the discovery will emerge and America will not miss a beat! I believe this! In my tiny little mind, it is almost un-American NOT to believe it!

Now, do you begin to see why I am so upset with our leaders when they tell me we CAN’T round up 12 million illegals in our country and deport them? Do you? Heck, we rounded up millions of Japanese all over the Pacific Ocean and sent them, and took them, home. We rounded up millions of Germans and Italians and sent them to either meet their Maker, or home, to get re-acquainted with their families.

So, if America is serious about fining a replacement for petroleum based fuels then we ought to get busy. The sooner we get started the sooner we will have the answer and… we WILL HAVE HE ANSWER! I don’t mean “Corn Squeezings” either. My family made, sold, and drank that stuff for years. We knew it would probably burn in an internal combustion engine… at least some of it would. But we didn’t cal it Ethanol. We called it “Moonshine” or “White Lightening”. No, Ethanol is not the answer. It’s just a “stop gap” until we find THE fuel.

What we need, more that a replacement for petroleum-based fuels, in America is more of the “Can Do” spirit of the Greatest Generation and their spawn. Then you would see mountains moved and problems solved.

I believe in my country and my countrymen. Yeah, I know that is old fashioned. You’ll probably not be surprised to learn that I still get a catch in my throat and a tear in my eye when I recite the pledge to the Flag. You see, I am convinced that America is God’s gift to this planet. America did not just “happen”. She was created by a people who were risk takers, who were bold, who were brave, and fearless, and in some cases even reckless. These were the “cast-off” people of other societies God sent here to populate this land. They are not easily beaten. Nor are their descendants.

When the time is right… we WILL have the problem solved. I believe that!

It’s not very often you will find me agreeing with an avowed environmentalist, but facts are facts and, when it comes to population growth, they are ignored at our peril if America is to avoid sliding rapidly into a Third World status.

“The American people, especially our leaders, must bring themselves to face the reality that our population cannot be allowed to continue to grow without disastrous consequences,” said Donald Mann, president of Negative Population Growth, Inc. in response to the news that on October 17, 2006 our population passed the three hundred million mark.

Of that number, the estimate of illegal immigrants ranges from twelve to twenty million. In his bestselling book, “State of Emergency”, Patrick J. Buchanan noted that “Rarely have immigrants constituted 10 percent of our number,” adding that “We have almost as many foreigners here today as came in the first 350 years of our history…(and) most of those coming are breaking in.” The U.S. Census bureau calculates that an immigrant sets foot in America, legally and illegally, every 31 seconds.

Americans, in addition to the out-of-control immigration crisis, have an even larger crisis looming and it too will impact every aspect of our lives. With more people being born every day than are dying, we are less than thirty years away from a population of 400 million!

We do need a new, replacement, younger work force and the current Social Security and other benefits programs depends on this. It’s predicted to go broke in a decade or so anyway.

A dramatically growing population is going to require more roads, bridges, power plants, airports, housing, jails, schools, hospitals, and other elements of our national infrastructure just to keep pace with our current needs. By any measurement you apply—crime, healthcare, education, transportation—life in America is going to grow worse without the facilities and the energy to maintain our current lifestyles.

The quickest, easiest answer is to stop all immigration, legal and illegal, into the nation and do not tell me this cannot be done. It has already been done. Between 1924 and 1965, America declared a moratorium, a forty-year pause that allowed the “melting pot” to facilitate assimilation into our culture.

There is another factor this massive growth of our population portends. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “worldwide marketed energy consumption is projected to grow by 71%.” Of the various sources of energy, “petroleum consumption is still expected to grow strongly, reaching 118 million barrels per day in 2030.” America will be closing in on a hundred million more people at that point.

America will not only be more crowded and in need of far more electrical energy generation than exists today, but it is going to need to exploit the oil reserves we have or import even more oil to fuel our transportation needs, heat homes, and provide the vast petrochemical needs of our industries.

Three hundred million Americans want to turn on the electricity where they live and work. Our electrical grid system needs massive upgrading and expansion. We offer few incentives to utility companies to do this.

We must rid ourselves of the impediments to expanding our nuclear energy industry.

We must begin to more effectively exploit our existing oil reserves in “mature” fields and to explore for more offshore and in places like Alaska’s ANWR.

In December 2005, Merchant Consulting in Houston released a study about “enhanced oil recovery projects.” David Merchant noted that two-thirds of the world’s proved oil reserves lie in the Middle East and that the world consumes around 80 million barrels of crude oil a day.

Not only will the worldwide oil demand increase, it will do so as the top 14 super giant fields are in decline.

Yes, oil is finite. Yes, we’re going to have to import more to support the needs of 300 million Americans. And yes there remain millions of barrels of U.S. oil that can be discovered, extracted and recovered, but Congress has created a vast matrix of laws that obstructs or discourages this process.

Today’s population of 300 million Americans doesn’t care much about the logistics of oil until it becomes too expensive at the pump. They are convinced that Big Oil is always going to provide oil and natural gas, and they are right.

Ponder this, on October 17 the U.S. Census made its announcement and Negative Population Growth, Inc. issued its warning. On October 15, however, ExxonMobil quietly announced it had signed an agreement with Qatar Petroleum to build a $3 billion world-scale petrochemical complex. The new facility will be devoted to the production of liquefied natural gas. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that America desperately needs to close its southern border to prevent obscene numbers of illegal immigrants arriving daily. We need to pause our current immigration to let new Americans assimilate or, to put it another way, to learn English!

We can have our expanding suburbs. We can respond to the needs of older Americans. We can pass on the America we know to a new generation.

This will not occur if our economy continues to be victimized by environmental policies that deter access to our nation’s energy reserves, puts curbs on new housing, and opposes our nation’s agricultural and corporate communities.

Ultimately, with three hundred million or four hundred million, if America fails to protect and assert its national sovereignty there won’t be a nation to save.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. His new book, “Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy”, has been published by Merril Press.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

A couple of years ago, Former Democrat Governor of Colorado Richard Lamm made these remarks at an Immigration/Overpopulation conference in Washington, DC. It is reported that when Gov. Lamm ended his remarks … there was no applause. Everyone in the room was chilled to the bone by the truth as if cold water had suddenly been thrown in their faces.

What did Gov. Lamm say? Read it for yourselves below:

I HAVE A PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICARICHARD D. LAMM

I HAVE A SECRET PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA. IF YOU BELIEVE, AS MANY DO, THAT AMERICA IS TOO SMUG, TOO WHITE BREAD, TOO SELF-SATISFIED, TOO RICH, LETS DESTROY AMERICA. IT IS NOT THAT HARD TO DO. HISTORY SHOWS THAT NATIONS ARE MORE FRAGILE THAN THEIR CITIZENS THINK. NO NATION IN HISTORY HAS SURVIVED THE RAVAGES OF TIME. ARNOLD TOYNBEE OBSERVED THAT ALL GREAT CIVILIZATIONS RISE AND THEY ALL FALL, AND THAT "AN AUTOPSY OF HISTORY WOULD SHOW THAT ALL GREAT NATIONS COMMIT SUICIDE." HERE IS MY PLAN: I. WE MUST FIRST MAKE AMERICA A BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL COUNTRY. HISTORY SHOWS, IN MY OPINION, THAT NO NATION CAN SURVIVE THE TENSION, CONFLICT, AND ANTAGONISM OF TWO COMPETING LANGUAGES AND CULTURES. IT IS A BLESSING FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TO BE BILINGUAL; IT IS A CURSE FOR A SOCIETY TO BE BILINGUAL. ONE SCHOLAR, SEYMOUR MARTIN LIPSET, PUT IT THIS WAY:THE HISTORIES OF BILINGUAL AND BICULTURAL SOCIETIES THAT DO NOT ASSIMILATE ARE HISTORIES OF TURMOIL, TENSION, AND TRAGEDY. CANADA, BELGIUM, MALAYSIA, LEBANON-ALL FACE CRISES OF NATIONAL EXISTENCE IN WHICH MINORITIES PRESS FOR AUTONOMY, IF NOT INDEPENDENCE. PAKISTAN AND CYPRUS HAVE DIVIDED. NIGERIA SUPPRESSED AN ETHNIC REBELLION. FRANCE FACES DIFFICULTIES WITH ITS BASQUES, BRETONS, AND CORSICANS.II. I WOULD THEN INVENT "MULTICULTURALISM" AND ENCOURAGE IMMIGRANTS TO MAINTAIN THEIR OWN CULTURE. I WOULD MAKE IT AN ARTICLE OF BELIEF THAT ALL CULTURES ARE EQUAL: THAT THERE ARE NO CULTURAL DIFFERENCES THAT ARE IMPORTANT. I WOULD DECLARE IT AN ARTICLE OF FAITH THAT THE BLACK AND HISPANIC DROPOUT RATE IS ONLY DUE TO PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION BY THE MAJORITY. EVERY OTHER EXPLANATION IS OUT-OF-BOUNDS. III. WE CAN MAKE THE UNITED STATES A "HISPANIC QUEBEC" WITHOUT MUCH EFFORT. THE KEY IS TO CELEBRATE DIVERSITY RATHER THAN UNITY. AS BENJAMIN SCHWARZ SAID IN THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY RECENTLY:...THE APPARENT SUCCESS OF OUR OWN MULTIETHNIC AND MULTICULTURAL EXPERIMENT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED NOT BY TOLERANCE BUT BY HEGEMONY. WITHOUT THE DOMINANCE THAT ONCE DICTATED ETHNOCENTRICALLY, AND WHAT IT MEANT TO BE AN AMERICAN, WE ARE LEFT WITH ONLY TOLERANCE AND PLURALISM TO HOLD US TOGETHER.I WOULD ENCOURAGE ALL IMMIGRANTS TO KEEP THEIR OWN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. I WOULD REPLACE THE MELTING POT METAPHOR WITH A SALAD BOWL METAPHOR. IT IS IMPORTANT TO INSURE THAT WE HAVE VARIOUS CULTURAL SUB-GROUPS LIVING IN AMERICA REINFORCING THEIR DIFFERENCES RATHER THAN AMERICANS, EMPHASIZING THEIR SIMILARITIES. IV. HAVING DONE ALL THIS, I WOULD MAKE OUR FASTEST GROWING DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP THE LEAST EDUCATED - I WOULD ADD A SECOND UNDERCLASS, UNASSIMILATED, UNDEREDUCATED, AND ANTAGONISTIC TO OUR POPULATION. I WOULD HAVE THIS SECOND UNDERCLASS HAVE A 50% DROP OUT RATE FROM SCHOOL. V. I WOULD THEN GET THE BIG FOUNDATIONS AND BIG BUSINESS TO GIVE THESE EFFORTS LOTS OF MONEY. I WOULD INVEST IN ETHNIC IDENTITY, AND I WOULD ESTABLISH THE CULT OF VICTIMOLOGY. I WOULD GET ALL MINORITIES TO THINK THEIR LACK OF SUCCESS WAS ALL THE FAULT OF THE MAJORITY - I WOULD START A GRIEVANCE INDUSTRY BLAMING ALL MINORITY FAILURE ON THE MAJORITY POPULATION. VI. I WOULD ESTABLISH DUAL CITIZENSHIP AND PROMOTE DIVIDED LOYALTIES. I WOULD "CELEBRATE DIVERSITY." "DIVERSITY" IS A WONDERFULLY SEDUCTIVE WORD. IT STRESSES DIFFERENCES RATHER THAN COMMONALITIES. DIVERSE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE ARE MOSTLY ENGAGED IN HATING EACH OTHER-THAT IS, WHEN THEY ARE NOT KILLING EACH OTHER. A DIVERSE," PEACEFUL, OR STABLE SOCIETY IS AGAINST MOST HISTORICAL PRECEDENT. PEOPLE UNDERVALUE THE UNITY IT TAKES TO KEEP A NATION TOGETHER, AND WE CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS MYOPIA. LOOK AT THE ANCIENT GREEKS. DORF'S WORLD HISTORY TELLS US:THE GREEKS BELIEVED THAT THEY BELONGED TO THE SAME RACE; THEY POSSESSED A COMMON LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE; AND THEY WORSHIPED THE SAME GODS. ALL GREECE TOOK PART IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN HONOR OF ZEUS AND ALL GREEKS VENERATED THE SHRINE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI. A COMMON ENEMY PERSIA THREATENED THEIR LIBERTY. YET, ALL OF THESE BONDS TOGETHER WERE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO OVERCOME TWO FACTORS . . . (LOCAL PATRIOTISM AND GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS THAT NURTURED POLITICAL DIVISIONS . . .)IF WE CAN PUT THE EMPHASIS ON THE "PLURIBUS," INSTEAD OF THE "UNUM," WE CAN BALKANIZE AMERICA AS SURELY AS KOSOVO. VII. THEN I WOULD PLACE ALL THESE SUBJECTS OFF LIMITS - MAKE IT TABOO TO TALK ABOUT. I WOULD FIND A WORD SIMILAR TO "HERETIC" IN THE 16TH CENTURY - THAT STOPPED DISCUSSION AND PARALYZED THINKING. WORDS LIKE "RACIST", "XENOPHOBE" THAT HALTS ARGUMENT AND CONVERSATION. HAVING MADE AMERICA A BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL COUNTRY, HAVING ESTABLISHED MULTICULTURALISM, HAVING THE LARGE FOUNDATIONS FUND THE DOCTRINE OF "VICTIMOLOGY", I WOULD NEXT MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ENFORCE OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS. I WOULD DEVELOP A MANTRA - "THAT BECAUSE IMMIGRATION HAS BEEN GOOD FOR AMERICA, IT MUST ALWAYS BE GOOD." I WOULD MAKE EVERY INDIVIDUAL IMMIGRANT SYMPATRIC AND IGNORE THE CUMULATIVE IMPACT. VIII. LASTLY, I WOULD CENSOR VICTOR HANSON DAVIS'S BOOK MEXIFORNIA — THIS BOOK IS DANGEROUS — IT EXPOSES MY PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA. SO PLEASE, PLEASE — IF YOU FEEL THAT AMERICA DESERVES TO BE DESTROYED — PLEASE, PLEASE — DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! THIS GUY IS ON TO MY PLAN."THE SMART WAY TO KEEP PEOPLE PASSIVE AND OBEDIENT IS TO STRICTLY LIMIT THE SPECTRUM OF ACCEPTABLE OPINION, BUT ALLOW VERY LIVELY DEBATE WITHIN THAT SPECTRUM." — NOAM CHOMSKY, AMERICAN LINGUIST AND US MEDIA AND FOREIGN POLICY CRITIC.Both Governor Lamm and the writer of the e-mail misidentify the author of the book Mexifornia, whose correct name is Victor Davis Hanson

Friday, October 27, 2006

Are the Islamofacists making an effort, in Iraq, to influence the US Election? It sure seems that they are. The escalation of the violence and killing would lead one to believe that they may be unable to bomb a train in the US, as they did in Spain, to influence the Spanish Election, but they sure as heck can claim more lives in Iraq.

The mainstream media tells us those Islamofacists are “media savvy”. Well, that may be. But, frankly, the Mainstream Media doesn’t seem all that “savvy”, themselves, to a host of us.

Seems to me, a really media savvy person would recognize that the US citizens are not going to cower and do their bidding as some other nations might. As a matter of fact, a truly Media Savvy Islamofacist would know that raising the level of violence will drive conservative voters, in the US, to vote for the conservative candidates. Conservative candidates who become conservative incumbents certainly are not going to call the US troops off and bring them home. So, shilling for the Liberal Left candidates, by raising the level of terror in Iraq, is backfiring, big time. Far from the desired effect of chasing American voters to the polls to demand that US forces be “redeployed” home, it has the opposite effect. It simply infuriates Americans and the majority of us are not easily coerced into voting they way a terrorist insists we vote.

If, by “Media Savvy”, one means the Islamofacists know how to manipulate the mainstream media… well, that takes no great stretch of sophistication. It is easily done and it IS done often.

In the meantime, the psychobabble of “Winning hearts and Minds” is a formula for getting US troops killed.

I have never bought into that pipe dream. In war, forget winning hearts and minds. Get the enemy by the testacles and you can take him anywhere you want him to go. We have not done that in Iraq. It is frustrating to our troops... and to the American public.

Dare I say that I feel we are wasting valuable time in the Iraq Theatre of War by insisting on building a democratic government? In reality, that democratic government we are spending so much time, money, energy, and American lives upon, will last only as long as the US troops remain in Iraq. The minute Americans troops are gone… so is democracy in Iraq.

Look, we have got to get over ourselves! We have got to stop forcing democracy on other nations. It won’t work. It can’t work. Forcing democracy on other nations is NOT the democratic way!

As “Nation Builders”… we suck! “Nation Building” is another of those psychobabble phrases, which is supposed to make us feel all warm and fuzzy. In the real world, it doesn’t work… and much blood is spilled in the process.

If we really want to win the war in Iraq, we’ll get more aggressive with this war. We’ll take the fight to the terrorists and continue an all out nation wide attack, day in and day out, ‘til we bring this war to a successful conclusion. Forget “Winning Hearts and Minds. Forget “Nation Building”. Forget everything… except seeking out the enemy, and engaging him in combat… until he is dead.

Until we can do that, this six-week war is going to last six decades and we will be in no better position than we are today.

I had no problem with going into Iraq when we did. What I do have a problem with, and many other Americans have a problem with, is what appears to be a distraction from our primary purpose in Iraq. I’m not interested in bringing, or taking, democracy to anybody. I was, and I remain, interested in destroying Saddam’s regime, and the Iraqi ability to create weapons of mass destruction, and their ability to wage war. After that, frankly, I don’t care. If they choose to wage a civil war among themselves, so be it. As long as there is no threat to Americans, or American interests, then let them have at each other.

The major threat to the US, and the free world, is from the Islamofacists. We are in a war to the death. The globe is not big enough for free people… and Islamofacists. One of us must be wiped out.

Here in the US, we are slowly coming to understand that Europe is already lost, to the Islamofacists, in this war. Africa is lost, Asia is all but lost, and much of South America is lost, or well on the way. As is usual, it will be the US, the Mother Country, and our two sister countries, who will be the only thing standing between an Islamic takeover of the world and the survival of civilization.

You can parse it, and nuance it, as much as you want. But, in the final analysis, it is them or us!

Thursday, October 26, 2006

I’ve thought about it for a long while, now... and I have concluded that the US needs to recant its pledge not to be the first to use the atom bomb in a war/conflict. I mean, hey, we did it, already. Two of them, in fact! Perhaps you remember August 1945 and a place called Japan??? I do!

Look, we are allowing ourselves to be tied up in these little brushfire wars in Afghanistan, and Iraq, when both could be ended by a flight of B-2’s and a few nukes.

The problem in Iran? Well, Mr. Ahmadinejad wants the atomic bomb? Well, I say give it to him, several actually, delivered from the bomb bay of a B-2, orB-52 bomber.

Then… the little squirt in North Korea, we could provide a demonstration of what a REAL Atomic blast looks like… up close and personal!

For those of you screaming at the computer and pulling your hair out about now, YES, I know it is extreme! But understand this: the whiners, and those who bitch, and moan, about the war going badly, and those who force our armed forces to fight with one, or both, hands tied behind their backs are, quite frequently, the same people. They are quickly pushing the US into a corner. A corner, from which, the only means of escape is to lash out in all directions. The most effective way to do that is with our atomic arsenal.

I hear the “national scolds” complaining that we have now been in Iraq as long as it took for us to fight the Second World War. Well, actually that’s true, but we have less KIA’s that we racked up the day we hit the beach in Normandy!

So, you want to leave Iraq? Well, let’s leave… and leave it a radioactive pile of debris for the next few thousand years.

We have the material, the methods, and the means to take out any country causing trouble for us in the world. I gotta tell you, those atomic weapons, as costly as they are, would be more cost efficient than placing a couple hundred thousand troops on the ground, in a troublesome region, and supporting those troops while forcing them to fight handicapped. And that is what we are doing, currently!

Hey, I’m tired of all the bellyaching, all the bitching, and moaning, coming from the very people who could not screw up enough courage to defend their own shadow. I’m tired of good, loyal, American men and women spilling their blood and laying down their lives for a whole segment of our society who have no respect, nor love for the country nor their fellow Americans. I’m tired of the useful idiots our enemies find, in abundance, in the governing bodies in Washington.

We have become two nations, again, much as this country split in the 1860’s. I’m not talking about a North/South split… I’m talking about a “Love America/Hate America” split. The coming election will do nothing to bring us closer together… no matter who wins. We are hopelessly split apart and the Union, though it appears as one on paper, in reality… it no longer exists. Neither side has any interest, at all, in rejoining the other.

The “Hate America” and the “Blame America First” crowds (one and the same) have sapped this country of its will to survive. Any medical practitioner will tell you that when the will to survive is gone… all is lost.

The story is told of a Confederate general, during the darkest days of the America Civil War, sending a dispatch to the Commanding General, Gen Robert E. Lee. In the dispatch, the Southern general is said to report that he and his troops were cut off, vastly outnumbered, the causality rate was extremely high, they were without provisions, and their ammunition was all but gone. In summation that Southern cavalier told Gen. Lee he would do the only thing left for him, and his men, to do. So, he said, they would attack, at dawn, with everything they had at their disposal!

That is the America I was born into. That is the America I grew up in. That is the America for which I wore the uniform of the US Army, and that is the America, which does not exist anymore.

I am frustrated with “mealy-mouthed” Americans who will willingly accept "second place". In my America, second place didn’t exist… in anything. Like the US Marine Corp, the improbable we did right away. The impossible took us just a tad longer.

I have been chided for stating that the US losses in Iraq are well within the "acceptable" range. Look, you don’t go to war if deaths are not acceptable. Rather, you bow your head and bare your neck to the chains of slavery. If you would remain free you must be willing to pay the price. The price for freedom is high. It is paid in the blood of patriots… the men and women of out Armed Forces.

I am heartsick at what this nation has become. America is now a cesspool of deviancy, mediocrity, cowardice, socialism, secularism, hedonism, and, finally… we are without hope.

Somewhere, about the late 1960’s to early 1970’s, Americans, like the shirker, in the Bible, decided to bury our talents for safekeeping rather than risk it in order to have it grow and benefit the country. Now we are paying the price for that reticence to risk everything for each other.

We are growing apart as a people. Our national conversation has grown shrill and vulgar. We can’t communicate with each other. When we try, it turns into a shouting match. We have become course, crass, and without sophistication. Our gentility is gone.

Finally, we have painted ourselves into a corner. A corner, which threatens to deny us, even our survival. Only drastic action will save us… and, unfortunately, many Americans do not wish to be saved and those who do... are not interested in saving those who don’t.We are feeding upon ourselves.

I began this post by pointing out where this attitude of mediocrity has gotten America in its war-fighting capability and the cost to recover that capability. Atomic Bombs will certainly win for us on the battlefields, but they will do nothing to salvage our land.

American men and women in uniform are growing tired of sacrificing their blood, limbs, and lives, for fellow Americans who actually want them to lose! And why would they not? The trust for their fellow Americans has been forever shattered. When the time comes for them to send their young sons and daughters to war for the US … will they do it? Can you blame them?

When a nation's vision is forced to dissipate, that nation is doomed. When a nation’s hopes, and dreams, and aspirations, are shelved because social programs take precedence over that national vision… the death knell has sounded. When a nation sends it’s national treasure, its sons and daughters, into harm’s way… and abandons them, that nation has lost its soul.

Here are the words of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, a man even his own party would seek to impeach today:

“The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.”… Pres. John F. Kennedy

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Morning after morning, for years now, I have opened my morning newspaper with dread.The Left Wing propaganda, which saturates its contents, plays havoc with the digestion of my breakfast. My blood pressure consistently spikes, at inhuman readings, as I peruse their editorial page(s). The liberal tripe, within their publication, stokes the fires of conservatism and solidifies my belief that only conservatives live in the real world, not the dream-like Utopia of the Left.

I usually wind-up pushing back the paper, in disgust, and heading straight for the computer and the Internet. At least there, I will find competing opinions, from both the left and the right, of American politics. My part of the country (The Southeastern US) is still in the throws of re-inventing itself. This used to be farm country with fields of grain, and tobacco, along side our highways stretching from the ditch bank, flanking each side of the thoroughfare, to the distant horizon, in both directions.No longer. The main cash crop has been determined to be “politically incorrect” and families who have depended on it’s selling price to feed, cloth, and educate their little ones have left the farm, and in many cases, the entire state, in a search for employment. Our state is controlled by a handful of political hacks that wield their power over the state as a medieval landowner would his serfs. The entire state has become”serfdom”.

Oh, but why do the residents condone such a system, you may ask. Because, dear reader, they don’t know it exists. And those that do are either powerless to do anything about it, or, are somehow, connected to the cabal which hold the reins of power.The same clique controls the state’s university system with liberal theory being taught throughout. Our great university is referred to as the “Vatican of Liberalism”.The press, for the most part, acts as the mouthpiece of the hacks who control the state.

The major publications in the state are liberal. If accused of it... they will deny it profusely, and continue to publish their liberal news and views as though there is no tomorrow.I have concluded that the newspapers have come to believe their own propaganda… that they are not biased. How else can one explain their continued practice of unashamedly slanting stories so that the political left comes through as the “good guy”. Yet, the majority of the people of the state are conservative. The people of North Carolina voted for Bush, over Kerry/Edwards, even though Edwards is a long time resident of the state. My state is, far and away, a conservative state. Can you imagine how well a conservative newspaper would fare in this state? Even a regional daily, conservative publication, would drain the subscribers of the liberal papers in a few years.But why stop with a conservative publication in a single state? Why not have a national conservative newspaper? Fox News Channel has proven conservatives are out here and are willing to support a conservative news organization.

But, then, newspapers are the “Old” Media right? Yep! Nobody wants to put money into anything, which is built on the Old Media. Well, small town weeklies seem to be hanging on. But theirs is usually community news, and obits, and wedding pictures, and such. Seldom does really hard news mar the print of their headlines. I expect they will outlive the regional papers.

The major publications are suffering. Subscriptions are way down. Why? Not much of a question, really. Folks are turning to the Internet for their news. I can instruct a search engine to pull up all conservative news outlets and then I can take my pick. I can read the news without having a temper tantrum, or a stroke! That alone is priceless.

There really is such a thing as balance in news reporting. Very few actually practice it, but it is a trait much admired by consumers of news.

It’s a shame that fine publications can’t recognize their own salvation lies in the practice of “balance” in their publications.They continue to publish, and broadcast, with their own biases, front and center, while they remain blind to them. At least that is the conclusion we are asked to draw, because we know they surely do not include bias in their reporting. We know this… because they have told us. And yet, they continue to produce news products which seem intent on impressing their brothers and sisters in the same media, and in the process, actually offer nothing of substance, or use, to their consuming public.And they wonder why their ratings are down and their subscriptions are down???

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The Dems have been stewing in their own juices over having to field Mrs. Bill Clinton as their 2008 Candidate for President. They don’t want her as their candidate but have been unable to figure a way to replace her, as their efforts at discouraging her have failed.

Mrs. Bill Clinton appears certain that she has a God-given right to run for President of the US… and win. It’s her right… right?

Well, no it isn’t. But our friends, on the Left, having demonstrated their lack of intestinal fortitude in time of war, have been, for months now, showing that same lack of guts in not being able to screw up enough courage to tell Mrs. Clinton NO. They had all but made their minds up that the 2008 election was another “throwaway” and hopefully they would have better luck on 2012. You see, the REAL powers that be, in the Democrat Party, know Mrs. Clinton cannot win. It was/is a sad sight.

Now, riding out of the Midwest is a man many see as the savior of the Democrat Party… a black man from Illinois, with a Swahili name… Barack Obama!

He’s handsome, articulate, and cuts a great public figure, and, well, he’s just perfect for the Democrats. Except for one thing… his paper trail. In roughly ten minutes I was able to learn that Mr. Obama is from the Democrat crowd, which is even farther Left than Mrs. Bill Clinton.

To make a point, I want to drop back a few decades, to my high school years, and share a pearl of hard-won wisdom.

I began public speaking, in either my sophomore year or junior year, in High School. I’ve been doing it ever since. In the early years, I competed with others my age. I learned a couple of things early on in my training. One, a person with a glib tongue is not necessarily smart. Some people are simply “gifted” with having the ability to persuade other people to do what they want, when they want it, all with the power of speech. It’s a gift… and a curse. I made a living at it for 30 years.

Another thing a glib tongued (articulate, if you prefer) public speaker learns is there is power in the spoken word. It is a powerful thing to be able to phrase sentences in such as way as to convince others of your confidence and your ability at solving problems. Now, you can be an empty suit and still have the power of public persuasion in your speaking ability. But, the fact that you can speak eloquently does nothing to alleviate the fact that you remain an empty suit. Those people are dangerous. (More to himself, or herself, than to anyone else). However, those who choose to use that power as a Pied Piper and lead people in the direction, he, or she, wants them to go, is far more dangerous. He has the ability to march people of a cliff, and into the ocean, as those undulating herds of lemmings are wont to do.

An orator who becomes drunk on the power of his speech, such as Hitler, can bring ruination to an entire society.

Our current President has difficulty stringing three words together, publicly, without wholesale slaughter of the English language. But, guess what? The common men, and women, of America, understand him easily and completely. They may not agree with him, but when he completes his remarks, there is very little, if any, doubt as to what he said.

What has this got to do with Mr. Obama’s possible run for the Democratic nomination for President? Not much. Except that one should be wary of glibness, or the ability to eloquently articulate. In the wrong hands, it can be lethal. One should always, always, investigate the past actions of the orator with the "golden throat". Longstreet

Monday, October 23, 2006

Conservatives to attempt rescue of Republican Party!The GOP is extremely concerned that Conservative Republicans will stay away from the polls next month and carry through on their threat to stay home and allow the GOP to lose the House and the Senate.

Finally, they’re paying attention! It’s getting down to "crunch time" and the powers that be, in the GOP, understand the "conservative threat" was totally sincere.

So, the fear is palpable. The Blue Bloods and the Country Club Set realize they cannot maintain their hold on the Congress without the conservatives they despise so much.

As the threat becomes clearer, and the possibility of losing to the Dems becomes a real possibility, the GOP is trying to "kiss and make up" with their conservative partners.The Dems, on the other hand, are a whole “nuther” story!

They have gotten even wilder, and more nonsensical, with public pronouncements of their plans once the mantle of power falls on their shoulders. At the very time when a smart politico would keep a low profile, the Dems have ramped up their left wing rants, and smear campaigns, and have managed to draw the attention of the Republican base, the Conservatives, like a laser beam, onto possibilities, and probabilities, should they Left Wing Agenda make it to fruition.

The Dems have hurt their chances simply by... not shutting up!

So now, conservatives are re-evaluating their boycott of the Republican ticket for fear that the “socialist party” might actually gain power, and in so doing, hurt the country… irrevocably. Little by little, Conservatives are, once again, vowing to cast their ballots for the Republican ticket… and save the country, again, from the Left Wing.

Even if Conservatives manage to pull it out for the Repubs, the damage done the party will not soon be healed, if at all.

Conservatives have had the course now with the GOP using us to win elections and then turn their backs on us when they are safely ensconced in their seats of power.

So long as the party has two class levels, the Blue Bloods and the Conservatives, this will not change. So what is to be done?

A third party. A Conservative Party. Conservatives MUST establish their own party and be done with the second-class citizenship so graciously granted them by the upper class of the GOP. Recent polls tell us that 61% of Americans consider themselves Conservative. Then, why don't we have our own Conservative Party???

We have had trial separations before, with the GOP, and managed to get back together. This time it will work no better than it has worked in the past. The great divide is still there and it is not going away.

Conservatives need a party they can call home…a party, which is all theirs. Conservatives need a party they can pour all their considerable energies into and be appreciated for it.

As it is, even when we win… we lose. We must continue to cajole, threaten, and even shun, from time to time, the powers in the upper class of the GOP, to remind them of the promises they made to get our votes and our support. It has gotten old and, frankly, we are tired of it.

So… we’ll go to the polls November 7th and we will pull the “R” lever, but we want it clearly understood that we vote the Republican ticket… not to save the GOP… but to save our country from the Left Wing Threat.

Then… we want our own Political Party, our own Conservative Party.

It’s time.

We have labored in the fields of someone else for far too long. We have the talent, we have the energy, and we have the “know how”. We need only a leader.Every movement needs a leader. We need to find our Conservative leader, sooner rather than later, and get the Conservative Party up and moving! The Conservative Party should have a full slate of candidates ready for the 2012 campaigns.

Let’s be about the work of consolidating the "Conservative" hold on power rather than assuring those seats of power for the Blue Bloods, the Country Club set, the Moderates, and the Liberals of the GOP.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

This nation of ours is home to some of the best meteorologists using some of the best technology available. This does not mean they have any idea what the weather will be two weeks from now. With this in mind, I offer you part two of my April ruminations on the 2006 hurricane season.

In April I reminded people that hurricanes have been showing up off the East and Gulf coasts for millennia. It wasn’t until millions of people started jamming themselves together in those scenic areas that the damage wrought by hurricanes became a problem. The ocean views are wonderful, but not when they’re in your living room.

Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University has gained a reputation as a predictor of hurricanes and I pointed out that in 2005 he had concluded there would be 13 named storms with 7 becoming hurricanes. In 2005, there were 28 storms and 15 of them became hurricanes. One of them flattened New Orleans and a huge swath of Mississippi for good measure.

In April 2006, however, Dr. Gray was back, predicting 17 storms powerful enough to be named, of which 9 would become hurricanes. By early October, he downgraded his forecast predicting only one more hurricane this year and two more named storms. He did not anticipate any intense hurricanes like Katrina.

So far, the Atlantic basin has seen 9 named storms and 5 hurricanes. None have represented a significant problem to coastal residents. Dr. Gray says he’s less worried about a really big, bad hurricane. Call me a cynic, but I would say it’s probably time for everyone on the East and Gulf coasts to buy an inflatable rubber boat.

Okay, I admit it, I am picking on this distinguished scientist, but I am also amused and informed by the way Mother Nature pays no attention to his calculations, computations, informed assumptions, and ultimately his predictions.

Why did he downgrade his 2006 prediction? A weather cycle called El Nino in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. Turns out that November activity during El Nino years is very rare, thus reducing the prospect of more storms and hurricanes.

Meanwhile, in the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a big fight broke out over a position paper authored by some of its scientists suggesting a link between hurricanes and global warming. Conrad Lautenbacher, the administrator, did not want NOAA associated with the paper because it contained, in his words, “no new science.”

Considering that the “science” surrounding global warming has been taken out behind the shed and spanked for being very bad, one can only congratulate Conrad for not wanting NOAA to contribute to the stinking pile of pseudo-science that keeps insisting the Earth is doomed when in fact it has warmed barely one degree Fahrenheit between 1850 and 1950, and not at all since then.

The paper the NOAA administrator resisted reportedly “conveyed a consensus opinion that global warming could lead to more intense hurricanes.” Return now to Dr. Gray’s most recent downgrade of his predictions. Not global warming, but the El Nino cycle. Not more and worse hurricanes, but less this year.

As they say, “Who you gonna believe? Global warming advocates or your lying eyes?” The endless blather about global warming should be consigned to a thick file in the same cabinet as the Piltdown man and other famous hoaxes.

A few days ago, someone hit the wrong button and the signal was flashed to all broadcasting stations in Connecticut that the entire state was to be evacuated… at once. So, where’d they all go? Nowhere. No one moved.

Why, you may ask. It’s simple, really. The Emergency Broadcast System doesn’t work.

Oh, it will work by delivering the message from one broadcast station to the other (so long as their receivers are working... and activate... when they receive the tone telling them to interrupt the regular broadcasting of that particular station and start sending, immediately, the EBS broadcast.),but so far as alerting anyone outside the broadcasting industry, it is a dud. The thing is… it has always been a dud since it’s inception.

I spent 30 years in the broadcasting business. We know it won’t work, simply because it never has.

The incident in Connecticut is only the latest in a long line of similar incidents to which, nobody responded… save the government.

Broadcasters have long known, and have long protested, to the government that this EBS system will not work. It’s like butting your head against the wall. The government has spent millions upon millions of dollars to create this thing and they will not admit it is a dud.

There should be a better way to get an emergency announcement out to as many Americans as possible.

The viewer and listener’s brain rarely processes those “tones” and “crawlers” on the TV screens and that “godawful buzzing” on the radio anymore. They are now so frequent they have become a part of the background noise of our daily lives. It is an annoyance more than anything else.

It is way past time for the US Government to toss the EBS system and create a system that will work. If there is such a thing. Frankly, I’m not sure there is.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Why doesn’t the Democrat party just go ahead and admit that they are scared “witless” of the terrorists in Iraq and, really, just want to run and hide?’

After the President’s speech at Annapolis, they nearly trampled each other to get to a “hot” mike and announce that nothing had changed, they still want to cut and run!

This “Run and Hide” Strategy, of the Democrats, is bound to backfire… and in a big way… soon. They are simply cementing the public’s image of them as a Party that is anti-war, and anti-military, and… cannot be trusted with the nation’s security.

I disagree with the President on a number of his policies, mainly his lack of a policy on illegal immigration. But, on the war, he’s right. Stand and fight! I cannot imagine how the Democrats can actually BELIEVE that running away from an aggressor will WIN the fight! I cannot believe that THEY believe the majority of Americans stand WITH THEM on this policy of “national cowardice”, for that is what it is, pure and simple!

The men and women of our military, all volunteers, ask nothing more than that their country back them. That’s all. They’ll do the fighting… and the dying, if necessary. They’re committed to repaying an obligation, owed by all Americans to their country, but actually paid only by those who wear the uniform and make themselves available to fight her wars.

The Democrat Party today is so different from it’s earlier self, especially during the Second World War. Why, this bunch of Democrats, today, would be calling for the impeachment of Roosevelt… their own President! However, in the ‘40’s, the kind of behavior demonstrated by modern Democrats, toward the war, would be treated as it should be…beneath contempt, as well as un-American.

I grew up in a solid Democrat family. My grandparents had FDR’s Portrait prominently displayed on the wall of their home. He was revered. So was America. No one would dare cast aspersions upon the Democrat Party, or America, and expect to remain in my family’s home. This was true of many, if not most, of the Southern homes of that day. No longer.

Today the South is very nearly “totally” conservative Republican. You can see islands of blue in the municipal areas, but once you leave the city limits of our cities, you are in a sea of red.

Most Southerners cannot agree with the Democrats, simply because they cannot fathom their demonstrated lack of love, and respect, for their own country. I do not foresee a change in the Southern attitude toward the Democrat party any time soon. And that, Dear Reader, is why it is folly for the Democrats to expect a Democrat candidate for President to win the South.

Southerners are fiercely patriotic and they do not see that same patriotism in the Democrat party of today. When the President says we will stand and fight, then, by God, that’s what Southerners will do. Why? Honor, Dear Reader! Honor! Some of you may have to look that word up in the dictionary. But, down South … we know what it means. I mean… we REALLY know what it means.

Down here, when a National Guard Unit, or a Reserve Unit, marches away to war, the whole town turns out to bid them farewell and Godspeed. And, that same town turns out to welcome them back, upon their return. Likewise, the entire town mourns when one of its sons, or daughters, is lost in service to our country. Patriotism is no abstract here.

The President’s speech at Annapolis was “spot on”. We understood what he said and… what he meant. It’s a shame to even debate “cutting and running”. Worse… it is dishonorable!

Friday, October 20, 2006

What has happened to the American family? It doesn’t exist, anymore. Oh, we have something we like to call "family", often times living beneath the same roof, but it’s not family… not in the true sense of the word.

America has "redefined" Family until we have defined it out of existence. I think that was intentional. Our socialist brothers and sisters, on the Left, want to control this country and, to do that, they must destroy the basic building blocks of this republic and reassemble those blocks to suit themselves. The single most important building block of any nation is her families. Destroy that and you can easily lay claim to a nation’s soul. And that is exactly what has happened.

I saw, a short time ago in the press, that families with unmarried parents now out number families with married parents in America. In the first place, the group of people with unmarried parents, at its head, is NOT a family... in the true sense of the word. So the entire report was based upon the flawed assumption that a family is a group of people with the authority figure either married or unmarried. That is not the classic family. That is a mob.Americans, look around you and consider that we have a society rotten at it’s core. The core of civilization is the family and when that core does not exist, or is mortally wounded, as ours in America is, then a country’s entire society is in peril. If there is any doubt that America’s society is in danger, pick up any newspaper, turn on any TV news channel, or just stand still for a moment and look a round you.We have failed, as a people, to protect our families. We have, through social programs, and such, made it much easier to dissolve the family and to create something acceptable to the “socialist shadow government”, working behind the scenes in America, in order to provide the necessities for that group, without actually working for it, nor providing the guidance of a nuclear family. The children coming out of such a "mock-up" of a family have no way of knowing that their experience was anything less than normal and they create their own… and in so doing… perpetuate the rot at our core.

Here in America we have an entire underclass, and entire segment of American society, who are wards of the US government.We have so may children, and grown young people, now, who were “raised by a village”, and not a family, that they lack those “familial ties” that anchor all humanity to the core of a family and that core is… love for one another. It isn’t there... and they are empty. Their souls are just barely attached to their bodies.We look around us in awe, and wonder, when some child, or young adult, walks into a school and begins to pump round after round into innocent children. We gaze at the vivid stories on TV news of heinous murders committed by a young person who looks just like the boy, or girl, living down the street from us. And… we still don’t get it.

It’s OUR fault. We destroyed the American family. Why? … Because… it was expedient. A tight nit family is nearly impossible to manipulate. But as with any organization, break it apart… and you can destroy it, piece by piece, and that is what we have done.

Our children are sent to nurseries, as sucklings, because the mother must report for work at the end of the allotted family leave period. The children don’t see their parents, save for short periods in the morning, as they are prepared for daycare, in the evenings as they are prepared for bed, and on the weekend when parents are worn out from their daily jobs and have no time to spend with them.Then those same children are sent off, at the age of six, to the public school system run by a government intent on molding their minds in the way it would have them go… and they spend 12 years in that system. The tie with their parents remains about the same, but becomes even more tenuous as the years speed by. Then… there is college. And there the finished product is rolled out. The liberalities of the college instructors and professors further mold those young minds into automatons of the socialist agenda. The process is now complete and the product is a near heartless, soulless, individual who believes his upbringing was NORMAL!!!We have at least two generations of these automatons walking among us. They are now in positions of power in our government, in our universities, in our public schools, and in our churches… and America is the worse for it.

Over the past five years 15,000 Americans, per year, were murdered by fellow Americans. 100,000 women a year were raped in the past five years in America, and 1 million Americans, per year, have been subjected to some sort of violent crime. These numbers only account for the last five years.

That bright shinning city on a hill has been corrupted and has become dull and all it’s luster is gone. No longer does it stand as a shining beacon to the remainder of mankind as the promise of a nation, which seeks after God and liberty for its people.It is said that all great nations commit suicide. Consider the Greeks and the Romans, from which America drew so much in founding this republic. Those great civilizations have been tossed into the dustbin of history. Soon, America will join them.

When a society defines its families… it defines itself. The American family has been ruled, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant. We no longer even understand what a family is.

The family is the bedrock upon which the pillars of this great society stand. That bedrock has crumbled and our society is showing the effects. (I refer you to the paragraph above with the statistics of violent crime committed by Americans against Americans.)

It is said that change is inevitable. That may be, but change can be guided and channeled in the direction a society wants to travel. In America’s case, we channeled change in the wrong direction. We replaced America’s reliance upon God with reliance upon the Federal Government. We replaced the Ten Commandments with a code of laws developed by man and loosely based on the Ten Commandments, but… we deny that. We replaced God in our public schools with school councilors, and policemen, and metal detectors… and murder. Our religion has gone weak in the knees with many of America’s mainline churches, saying openly, that the scriptures, which have served us for well over 2000 years, are no longer relevant, that God doesn’t actually matter anymore.

The plain truth is, dear reader, we have condemned ourselves.Can we turn it around? I don’t think so. America is racing toward the apocalypse, the final hour when all will be irrelevant. Nothing will matter any longer. “The End” will have been writ large across the pages of history and America will be but a footnote.

The scriptures tell us that God’s Spirit will not always strive with man. At some point God will pull back that protecting hand, that guiding hand, that gracious hand. America has grown fat and arrogant and, like the builders of the tower of Babel, we have taken it upon ourselves to “be like God”. And, frankly… we’re not big enough.

Man’s instructions were simple enough. A man and woman should cling to one another and be fruitful and multiply... and create families. Children were admonished to honor their fathers and mothers. The parents, likewise, were admonished to not provoke their children to anger. In other words… love one another. Love was the basic building block of the family and the family was the basic building block of man’s society.

Now, here in America, we have destroyed the family. Our foundation is gone, our anchor is gone, and we are adrift, soon to slip beneath the waves… as history sails on… without America.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

We have felt for sometime the proponents of the Global Warming Hoax are on a power trip. Some of you didn’t believe that. Well, now comes the story that some of the GWC (Global Warming Crowd) want those of us, who do not buy into the awful science behind the global warming theory, tried for some kind of “crimes against humanity”. I am not kidding.

It would seem to me that the very last place the GWC would want to go would be to a courthouse, or a court room, anywhere in the world. You see, a trial seeks truth. It seeks facts. It is our opinion that when the sloppy science of the Global Warming Theory is brought to light, the proponents would be laughed out of, practically, any courtroom in the world. The Scopes Monkey Trial would seem like a Sunday School picnic!

The frustration of the GWC must be monumental. They keep up their continuous drumbeat of doom and gloom and for the most part, that part of the world, which is most free, ain’t buying it. When you give the human race a choice between freedom, and the restrictions which would be placed on their freedoms by the GWC, they’ll choose freedom every time.

So the GWC continues to nag and snap at the ankles of humanity. And now… they want to put their opponents in jail!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

We conservatives would like to thank the American Left/Mainstream Media for bringing up gun control just 4 weeks, or so, out from the Mid-term election. If there is any single threat, which will draw conservatives out to the polls… it is the threat of gun control.

Look, the Left has blinded itself to the evil in man. In my personal case, I believe that man is basically evil and his entire life is spent overcoming that evil… if he lives a decent life, that is. Apparently, the Left believes just the opposite. So, we’re never going to agree on this.

Murder comes from the heart. A human being, bent on murder, will, without doubt, find the means to commit that murder.

But, moving on, to giving up one’s means of resistance to an over-reaching government…. Conservatives understand that as long as the government is afraid of its citizens… we will remain free

Back in January, of 2005, I wrote the following:

“A government cannot control its citizens without gun control in the extreme. I mean… taking away the guns of those citizens.

The founders of the US understood this and they thoughtfully granted the citizens of the US the right to bear arms. So long as the citizens exercise that right we will be free. Soon after giving it up, we will be a totalitarian nation. It is just that simple.

I have heard all the arguments for taking away our guns and they all ring hollow when presented side by side with the facts.

Look, if you want to reduce gun deaths in America, you have to change people’s conduct. The gun is just a cold piece of machinery. It does what it is commanded to do.

The silly argument, which says the founders intended only members of the Militia to possess arms, is ridiculous. OK, who is the militia? Huh? No, it is not the National Guard. No, it is not the Reserves, and no, it is not the organized Armed Forces of the United States. Let’s look at the Federal Law on the militia. Paraphrasing the US Code title 10, section 311: “all males born in the US are automatically members of the US Militia from age 17 through age 46”.

I’m not a member of the NRA. But, I wish them well.

Our freedom is far too precious to allow the anti gun lobby to take it away. The gun bought us our freedom and it keeps us free. Take away the gun and those with murder in their hearts... will still murder… by other means. Remember, Cain had not a single gun.

In the Nation’s capitol, where gun ownership is illegal, they have more murders than any other place in the country. How can that be? Murder comes from the heart, not from the gun.

A wise man once said: “Freedom stands on five boxes: The Soap Box, The Ballot Box, the Jury Box, the Witness Box, and… the Cartridge Box."

There can be no compromise with those who would disarm our populace. We must fight to keep our second amendment rights, for nothing less than our freedom is at stake. One of our founding fathers had this to say on our right to bear arms:

[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. ---James Madison,The Federalist Papers, No. 46. Finally, no less a person than “founding father” Patrick Henry said the following:

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.”Never give up your gun for it is your freedom.”

These days, of course, the Left uses the school shootings to tug at the heartstrings of Americans and, hopefully, get us to give up our guns… out of guilt.

Like any shooting the gun is not at fault. The person pulling the trigger is at fault.

But, I suppose we must learn to expect the gun control issue to come up every time a tragedy at a school happens. It is the way the Left makes use of a nation’s sorrow, and guilt, to further their agenda.

But, just weeks out, from an election… speaks of over confidence.Longstreet

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Somebody, somewhere, the other day, remarked that simply because the UN is corrupt is no reason for the US to leave the UN. The writer suggested strongly that the US “fix” the UN!The first thought to enter my mind when I read that was… “I wish I had a case of whatever that guy is smoking!”The UN is irrelevant. It has made itself that way. It is corrupt, beyond measure, and it causes far more problems than it solves around the world.The UN exists only to provide cushy offices and grand homes, for their officials, and… diplomatic immunity while they are here, on US soil. It also provides a headquarters for practically every enemy country on the globe to base their spying operations against the US. It is the only spot on the globe that bloodthirsty dictators can come together with total immunity.

I am embarrassed that my country, the US, is a member of the UN and I take every opportunity to plead with my government’s officials to do all in their power to get the US out of the UN.

There may have been a time when an organization, such as the UN (when it began), was necessary. NO longer. It has become the thing we feared most… an enemy of the US. And that enemy is perched on the riverbank in New York City. Yes, I know the UN owns the land their building stands upon, but the fact that it’s proximity, to US soil, is so close… makes me shudder with revulsion.

I suppose we all are aware that Hugo Chavez, of Venezuela, is attempting buy his way onto the Security Council at the UN. If there was any doubt, any doubt at all, in your mind, that the UN is corrupt; Mr. Chavez’s antics should remove it. His efforts failed earlier this week, but the voting continues.

So what should the US do?

First… get out!

Look, we know who our friends are. They are the people we need to bond with in a mutual defense treaty, of some sort, and allow the UN to collapse of it’s own corrupt weight.

I am sick and tired of the UN, and the political Left, insisting that we get that proverbial “permission slip” from them to take care of problems in the world that affect the US. The US doesn’t need the UN and, I daresay, the majority of Americans do not wish to continue our membership in that disreputable organization.

If the US withdrew it’s funding of the UN, I suspect the UN would eventually have to close its doors. We pay 22% of all the expenses of the UN and we provide the finest troops in the world for their peacekeeping (?) missions.

Does the fact that the US pays such a large amount of the expenses of the UN bother me? You bet it does! If former Senator Jesse Helms, of North Carolina, was still in the Senate, I daresay that amount would be nearly cut in half, if we didn’t withhold payment altogether. The latter would suit me. Every time the US treasury cuts a check for the UN it just feels like aiding and abetting the enemy.

The UN does not reflect the values the American citizen holds dear. We have no business in an organization bent so completely toward our destruction. I understand we may be trying to live into the old proverb, " Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer". That may be. But the UN is just too close for comfort!

In his book, “State of Fear”, author Michael Crichton appended an opinion entitled “Why Politicized Science is Dangerous,” and cautioned against, “a social program masquerading as a scientific one”, citing the widespread eugenics movement in the early part of the last century. (http://www.michaelcrichton.net/fear/fear_main.shtml)

“A second example of politicized science is quite different in character,” warned Crichton. “It exemplifies the hazard of government ideology controlling the work of science, and of uncritical media promoting false concepts.” Just as eugenics drew praise and support from politicians, academicians, and media in its time, so too has the manufactured crisis of global warming today. (Emphasis added)This politicizing of science can be found in the way the United States government spends billions to fund various research programs. One example is the $40 billion spent by the U.S. Global Change Research Program since 1990. For that kind of money one would think something conclusive has been ascertained about “global warming”, but if its recent report is any indication, the answer is no.

Another egregious example can be found in the Environmental Protection Agency that, over the past decade, has made grants to more than 2,200 nonprofit groups. An Associated Press article by Rita Beamish in December 2005 noted that those grants often went to groups “that lobby and sometimes sue the agency.”

Multiply this by all manner of government agencies concerned with energy, education, health care and other issues, and by countless advocacy organizations and individuals receiving billions in taxpayer funding.

What emerges is research that often reflects the outcome of whatever cause or theory government bureaucrats are advancing.

Some of this research is published in peer-reviewed scientific and academic journals, and while some good science is achieved, there is no way of knowing how much government-funded research exists to advance various social and political agendas.

Amid these problems, we now have a new piece of legislation called the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 (S. 2695), which was introduced last May. The bill would mandate that, “federal agencies develop public access policies relating to research conducted by employees of that agency or from funds administered by that agency.”

The Act would further require original research papers that, “have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and result from research supported, in whole or in part, from funding by the federal government” be available to anyone with access to the Internet.

We paid for it, so why shouldn’t We the People have access to it? The problem is that We the People don’t get to decide what gets researched and what doesn’t. Furthermore, We the People rarely have the scientific training and knowledge to grasp the implications of such research. That’s why serious journals, at considerable expense, publish peer-reviewed studies for their peers rather than Joe Sixpack.

Moreover, hardly a day goes by when a headline screams from the pages of some newspaper that some study has concluded that the Earth is doomed or everything you breathe, eat or drink will kill you. The public has been bombarded for years with bad reporting about bad scientific research, a trend “open access” would only compound.

This innocent sounding bill might better be called “The Advancement of Junk Science Act of 2006.”

All the government-funded studies, whether having merit or redolent with hidden agendas, would be available to become a platform by which various social agendas would be advanced.

Nothing truly impedes anyone from access to published research studies; it’s available for those who want to read it. “Open access”, however, is an invitation for more clueless journalism and covert advocacy.

This bill literally forces publishers of medical, scientific and scholarly journals, which invest hundreds of millions of dollars each year in their publications, to give away their work. There is something inherently wrong in that. The Open Access bill is, in this respect, an unconstitutional “taking” of intellectual property by the federal government.

So, what starts out appearing to be a reasonable mandate based on federal funding turns out to be bad news for everyone; from those doing the research to those publishing the research. Ultimately the unskilled consumers of “open access” could also be at risk inasmuch as they are unaware of whether the material they’re reading has any real merit.

Another way to further debase the process that supports questionable science is to create “alternative journals.” It should come as little surprise that liberal financier George Soros, through his Open Society Institute, is a big fan of “open access” and alternative journals.

In 2002, Soros gave $3 million dollars to the Budapest Open Access Initiative, one of whose objectives is to “assist in the establishment of alternative journals that are committed to offering free and unrestricted online access to published articles.” Open access to bogus research could result in the easy dissemination of the social control agenda behind global warming and other “theories.”

A government that commits boneheaded mistakes every day should not be in the business of requiring what research should be openly available while it competes against private research that may well be of far superior merit.

An email, letter or call to your Senator might be a good idea before S. 2695 becomes law.

For very good reasons, medical, scientific, and scholarly journals are intended to be read by those in the communities they serve, not the general public.

This system has worked for a very long time to winnow out ultimately bad or junk science and should be left alone to continue that process.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. His new book, “Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy”, has been published by Merril Press.

About Me

J. D. Longstreet is a conservative Southern American (A native sandlapper and an adopted Tar Heel) with a deep passion for the history, heritage, and culture of the southern states of America. At the same time he is a deeply loyal American believing strongly in “America First”.